Orthodox Biz Blog

Can Baseball, America's game, have a Greek accent?

In an article on Orthodox Biz in May 2010, I predicted the demise of Protestantism. That seemed outrageous to many of my readers, who were not at all shy about sending me emails questioning my sanity. Of the approximate 2 billion Christians in the world today, 648 million or so are Protestants, with most of those being Evangelicals. The idea that hundreds of millions of Protestant Christians will convert to some other religion seems far-fetched in the extreme. Over the short term, I agree that this is impossible. But I think the trend is there, and the next hundred years is going to see a massive shift in Christianity around the globe. That shift, in my opinion, will be away from Protestantism and towards Orthodoxy on a massive scale.

Protestantism in the United States is under relentless, sustained attack. An attack so serious that it threatens to sweep Protestantism, as a movement, into the dustbin of history. Unfortunately for the various Protestant Churches, many of their own Theologians are inadvertently providing aid and comfort to the enemy in this struggle. Of course, it doesn't help at all that the men attacking Protestantism so ferociously have been dead for almost 2,000 years.

Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.” Even though they talk almost obsessively about the Founding Fathers, this simple truth has been totally lost on Republicans for decades. The trend has accelerated since 9/11, but "law and order" as a Republican wedge issue dates back to at least Nixon.

My son is eight. Our normal bedtime routine is to read chapters from great novels and have short discussions on them before turning out the light. We recently finished up Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. The book deals with a lot of grown-up topics, and we used it as a springboard to discuss all kinds of issues, but especially the nature of crime, punishment, and torture.

In the book, Esméralda is accused of killing Captain Phoebus and of witchcraft. Since she refused to confess, she was taken to the dungeon to be tortured into confessing.

Knowing that she was just a young girl, my son sat up and asked, “Dad, who is going to torture her?”

“They’re Catholic priests,” I replied.

“They can't be real priests,” my son replied, “Real priests couldn't do that.”

An Evangelical friend of mine of was complaining about his kid learning Chinese history in school. He was incensed that his son would learn "foreign history" instead of "Western history." I laughed and then infuriated him when I said, "For your kid, Western history is just as foreign."

When President George W. Bush was in office, I was a flaming liberal. I opposed the Iraq War on a host of grounds, not the least of which was the Constitutional requirement that only Congress (not the president) could declare war.

I was critical of Bushian fiscal policies from profligate spending to steel tariffs to farm subsidies. I was bitterly opposed to the PATRIOT Act and other curtailments on the freedoms ordinary Americans enjoy. The various ideas coming out of the Justice Department about the ‘unitary executive' made my skin crawl, and please don't get me started at a party on the problems with torture and the ability to declare American citizens to be enemy combatants.

I first started working on Web projects for the Orthodox Christian Network (myocn.net) in late 2006. At the time, OCN had one program – Come Receive the Light. Come Receive the Light was primarily a traditional radio broadcast, airing in many key markets once a week. OCN’s Website was important, but had always been considered a secondary delivery channel compared to terrestrial radio.

With the economy in the tank, businesses need all the tourist dollars they can get. Which is why local police ruining family vacations with speeding tickets is a bad idea. Unfortunately, with towns and cities hurting for cash, the RADAR gun is getting more use than ever. New evidence proves that speed enforcement isn't about safety, but about making money for local governments. Not only is speeding not a serious cause of accidents, but a new study has shown a correlation between declining municipal revenues and increased speeding fines. Worse, as police focus on traffic enforement, other types of crimes tend to go up. Business owners need to get the facts to guard their businesses from the harm strict speed enforcement can cause.

In one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories, the esteemed detective had deduced that the villain was an American. But, all the suspects were purporting to be British. How to figure out which one was lying?

Elementary, my Dear Watson! Holmes tossed the prime suspect a ball. He caught it with his left hand, at which point Holmes promptly arrested him.

Why, you might ask? Because the man was right-handed. A right-handed European man would catch a ball thrown to him with his right hand. A right-handed American, however, would wear his baseball glove on his left hand. That means a right-handed American would catch a ball with his left hand, which is the exact opposite of how the rest of the world works.

Globally, Orthodox Christianity is known to be highly conservative concerning what is frequently referred to as "traditional Christian morality." In Europe, for example, more progressive and liberal elements of society spare no effort in attacking the Church as a bastion of traditionalist repression, especially concerning homosexuality.

Ironically, however, in the United States an image seems to be growing of the Orthodox Church as more liberal towards sexual sins than, for example, the Evangelical denominations. Quite a few people, judging by chatter on the Internet, are getting the impression that Orthodoxy is similar to the Episcopal Church in respect to moral issues.

Obama's stimulus plan won't help the economy, and might actually sound the death knell of the dollar. After all, the whole thing is predicated on the idea that you can borrow and spend your way to prosperity. That is just plain nuts, of course. You don't borrow your way to wealth - you produce your way to wealth. Americans are tapped out and swimming in debt, so producing for the domestic market is a tough slog right now. Good thing there is a big world out there, and a good way to sell what you produce is to target it.

In the U.S., Orthodox Christians rarely get the opportunity to feel good about celebrities. There are quite a few people who claim to be Orthodox who work in movies, in politics, and in the arts. Unfortunately, almost all of these people are not what could be termed spiritual role models. Nominally Orthodox politicians get busted for corruption, Hollywood Hellenes live tabloid lives that shame everyone, and our artists cause no end of mischief. We are so used to this state of affairs, most of us don't even react anymore. Which is why when someone who is genuinely Orthodox, and famous, does something important we need to take notice.

Rod Dreher is an Orthodox Christian and columnist for the Dallas Morning News. He's also a contributor to the Orthodox Christian Network, where his Just Thinking podcast is one of the network's most popular shows. He was also the target of a critical article recently published on a prominent conservative blog site.

My first Christmas Eve in Poland, I was invited to a friend's house to celebrate. It was 1992, and though I had been teaching in Poland for six months, most of my time had been spent around other ex-pat Americans. This was my first real Polish holiday, and I had looked forward to it eagerly.

Are you an Orthodox Christian with friends or relatives in or around Damascus, Syria? Do you belong to the Antiochian jurisdiction, and so have ties to Syria that way? If so, you might want to notify all your Syrian contacts that Damascus, ancient seat of civilization and the home of the Patriarch of Antioch along with thousands of Christians, is about to be destroyed by Israel.

Are you an Orthodox Christian with friends or relatives in or around Damascus, Syria? Do you belong to the Antiochian jurisdiction, and so have ties to Syria that way? If so, you might want to notify all your Syrian contacts that Damascus, ancient seat of civilization and the home of the Patriarch of Antioch along with thousands of Christians, is about to be destroyed by Israel.

We got herded into the room blindfolded. We knew that we had gone down some steps into a basement and that it was cool. Other than that, we weren't sure where we were or what was happening.

We heard chanting. Suddenly, the blindfolds were removed, and robes were hurriedly put on us. As we stood there blinking, we found ourselves in a candlelit room with various symbols on the wall. On the floor, was a great diamond around which we found ourselves arrayed. As we stood there, a ceremony began that would bind us to this brotherhood. The service was intoned by robed men reading from leather-bound service books.

In February 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. This capped off a process which had begun with NATO's airwar on Serbia from 24 March to 10 June 1999. That campaign killed an estimated 5,000 Orthodox Christian Serb soldiers, and wounded an estimated 10,000 more. This is in addition to the estimated 500 innocent Orthodox Christian civilians that were killed by bombs striking non-military targets. The direct damage of the bombing campaign has been estimated at $30 billion dollars in one of the poorest nations in Europe. Serbia is not expected to recover from the U.S.-led bombing campaign for another decade or more.

My ninety-one-year-old grandmother was in horrible pain. As she lay in the hospital bed, dehydrated and unable to even take her own medicines, she repeatedly cried out to God, "Lord, help me!"

My father and I sat at her bedside watching her struggle. "She's praying for healing," I said to my father, "I don't think God is going to answer that prayer. I think he's already rendered His judgment on this, and she's praying the wrong prayer."

A short time later, she suddenly switched her prayer. She cried out, "Lord, take me on!" She prayed that prayer three times. Then she became very still, as if sleeping. Within five minutes, I noticed she wasn't breathing.

"I guess she finally prayed the prayer that God was willing to answer," I said to my father as we verified that she was gone.

In late 2007, Dr. Clark Carlton, author of the well-known five-volume Faith Series of books on Orthodoxy, published an Open Letter to Orthodox Christians on behalf of Ron Paul. In his letter, published on LewRockwell.com, Dr. Carlton lays out his case for why Orthodox Christians should support Republican Ron Paul for president.

Dr. Carlton believes that our unique experiment in self-governance is at a cross-roads, and that only rediscovering Constitutional principles as espoused by Ron Paul can save our Republic.

The Rise of Wicca!

The journalists look at this process and see a way to write sensational headlines that grab the readers' attention. Many conservative leaders look at this and immediately start denouncing the sorry state of affairs, while asking for our donations to help rectify it immediately. Theologians of all stripes launch into attacks on the foundations of the new mystery cults.

But, I'm a business analyst. I look at this situation and see a really good marketing opportunity for Orthodoxy.

Back in September 2007, a poster on the Website Orthodox Circle wrote an impassioned plea. He and his wife are adult converts to Orthodoxy. They have visited our church in the past, but are now attending a mission closer to their home. The gentleman wanted to know, in regards to growing the Orthodox Church, "How can we inform the masses about our church, so that it doesn't seem so strange to the protestants?"

A few years back I was attending a Greek Orthodox parish. At coffee hour one Sunday, I asked a recently Chrismated couple how their Thanksgiving had been the week before.

"It was good," the husband said, "But it was hard eating vegetarian when my family was having turkey."

I laughed, because I'd just spent Thanksgiving at the home of an Orthodox priest with a big, fat turkey in the deep fryer.